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Minutes - Planning Board - 12/17/2009 CITY OF BOULDER PLANNING BOARD ACTION MINUTES December 17, 2009 1777 Broadway, Council Chambers A permanent set of these minutes and a tape recording (maintained for a period of seven years) are retained in Central Records (telephone: 303-441-3043). Minutes and streaming audio are also available on the web at: http://www.bouldercolorado.gov PLANNING BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Bill Holicky Willa Johnson Elise Jones Andrew Shoemaker Adrian Sopher, Chair Mary Young STAFF PRESENT: Michelle Allen, Housing Planner Clay Douglas, Assistant City Attorney David Gehr, Assistant City Attorney Julie Johnston, Senior Planner Katie Knapp, Civil Engineer II Michelle Mahan, Transportation Engineer Elaine McLaughlin, Senior Planner Chris Meschuk, Planner I Susan Richstone, Long Range Planning Manager Douglas Sullivan, Utilities Project Manager Jessica Vaughn, Planner I Paula Weber, Administrative Specialist III 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair, A. Sopher, declared a quorum at 6:05 p.m. and the following business was conducted. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES No minutes were scheduled for approval. 3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION No one from the public addressed the board. 4. DISCUSSION OF DISPOSITIONS, PLANNING BOARD CALL-UPS Call-up items: 6300 Diagonal Highway Site Review for Height Modification (LUR2009-00039), the board did not call up this item. 2855 N. 63`d Street, Technical Document review, the board did not call up this item. 1100 1P Street Use Review (LUR2009-00071), the board did not call up this item. Floodplain Development Permit (LUR2009-00073), the board did not call up this item. I 5. ACTION ITEMS A. Wastewater Utility Master Plan Public hearing and consideration of. 1. A recommendation to City Council concerning the Wastewater Utility Master Plan and: 2. Approval of the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan (BVCP) Wastewater Utility Master Plan Summary. Staff Presentation C. Meschuk and D. Sullivan presented the item to the board. Public Hearing No one from the public addressed the board. Motion On a motion E. Jones, seconded by W. Johnson, the Planning Board recommended (6-0) that City Council accept the Wastewater Utility Master Plan and approve revisions to the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan incorporating the staff memorandum dated December 17, 2009 B. Violet Crossing Public hearing and consideration of Concept Plan Review and Comment #LUR2009-00068, Violet Crossing, northeast corner of the intersection of Broadway and Violet Ave., for a rental residential development with 78 market rate apartments and 18 affordable apartments on 4.66 gross acres, located in the MU-2, Mixed Use-2 and RM-2, Residential Medium-2, zoning districts. Staff Presentation E. McLaughlin presented the item to the board. Applicant/Owner Presentation Cindy Harvey presented for the applicant. Public Hearing Elizabeth Black, 4340 West 13'h Street, spoke to the board in support of development of this property. She is in support of not having commercial zoning for this site. Chris Brown, 4340 13th Street, spoke to the board in support of 14th Street being the thru street and in support of more parking on the site to alleviate any future parking problems for his neighborhood. Cam Fraser, 1205 Upland, spoke to the board in support of more parking on this property and asked the board to remove 13'h Street as an access. Aaron Brockett, 1601 Willow Pine Ave., spoke to the board in support of the project. Terry Palmos, 2775 Oros Ave, spoke to the board in support of the project. 2 Board Discussion 13`h / 14`h Street The board supported the 14`h Street vehicular bridge. The board was satisfied with the 1P Street connection to the bike path and then north to the proposed library turnaround. Mixed Use vs. Residential M. Young said it makes sense for this site to be residential. She said it provides a critical mass for some of the commercial just to the north. W. Johnson supported first floor residential. B. Holicky supported first floor residential because there is not enough population to support mixed use for all first floors. A. Shoemaker agreed with B. Holicky and said it should be looked at it from a broad perspective. A. Sopher did not have a problem with the project being all residential and supported three stories. W. Johnson said the scale and mass is really nice on Broadway and that both buildings A and B could be three stories. B. Holicky agreed with W. Johnson about the third story. M. Young said that would exacerbate the parking situation. Mix of Housing Types M. Young supported some family friendly type dwellings. W. Johnson said she would not push for unattached on this site. B. Holicky said there are certain types of attached housing that work well with families but they need to have yards and none of these have yards. He said there is a need for one and two bedrooms iri this area. A. Shoemaker agreed. He further stated that the focus on one to two bedrooms will alleviate some of the parking issues. A. Sopher said usable open space needs to be provided, not just in townhomes but also adjacent to multifamily residential projects so kids and families have other kinds of outdoor spaces available to them. E. Jones did not agree that there is a need for one to two bedroom units. Parking TDM E. Jones said she typically supports reducing parking particularly in places that have transit access, but in this instance the neighbors do not want to reduce parking, so she would be willing to support the proposed parking numbers. She did not support the internal parking lot and the sea of asphalt. M. Young agreed with E. Jones and added that in an attempt to mitigate the potential overflow onto 13`h Street, ballards could be added to allow for bikes and pedestrians access only. W. Johnson said public streets are meant to be parked on. She did not support the stilts under building E. She said we are playing a delicate balance that seems a little heavy on parking. A. Sopher agreed with W. Johnson and E. Jones on the parking issue. A. Shoemaker said if there was a large garage in the center it would feel less like a giant sea of cars and more of a house-like streetscape. B. Holicky did not support this type of development sending parking to the adjoining neighborhoods. He did not support people parking in front of the neighborhood houses to the point where it is unfeasible park along the street. He agreed with A. Shoemaker comments and supported increasing the green in the central court area. 3 A. Sopher summarized that parking numbers are in range as far as the board is concerned. There is concern over the central courtyard in terms the carport and the landscaping. E. Jones strongly supported ECO Passes. A. Sopher said the 13`h Street link which has parking on both sides needs some work. He questioned how the link would feel like a connecting link out of the property both from the point of view of a car route and for bikes. Architecture style E. Jones generally liked the change from the last concept review. She agreed with staff's comments about making it pedestrian scale. A. Shoemaker asked for no flat roofs and supported the trellises. E. Jones agreed on no flat roofs. M. Young also agreed on no flat roofs. She likes the cornices and agreed with the staff comments about the porches being a little blocky. B. Holicky disagreed with some of the comments from staff. He said the architecture is clunky, but that could be due to the fact that the project is early in the design process. He said his biggest issue is with the double symmetricality. He said some diversity in terms of the columns or trellises would make for a more interesting streetscape and said it should not look like four buildings flipped. A. Sopher agreed with B. Holicky in regards to the staff comments on scale. He suggested that the bridge be looked at more closely. Trees E. Jones supported salvaging the healthy mature trees on the site. A. Shoemaker said the trees that have grown on this site are not that special and the idea of building a house around a tree is fine as long as it is a really special tree. C. Update and discussion of the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan 2010 Major Update. Staff Presentation J. Johnston presented the item to the board. Public Hearing Nancy Blackwood, 1065 9th Street spoke to the board in support of this process. Board Discussion The board discussed the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. The board was in support of the kick-off event presented by staff. The board also suggested considering reducing the number of events and the general time frame to be shortened. 6. MATTERS FROM THE PLANNING BOARD, PLANNING DIRECTOR, AND CITY ATTORNEY The board discussed their letter to City Council. 7. DEBRIEF/AGENDA CHECK 8. ADJOURNMENT The Planning Board adjourned the meeting at 10:47 p.m. 4 APPROVED BY Board it DATE 5